Suzanne Shaw (born Suzanne Crowshaw on 29 September 1981) is an English actress, singer and television personality. She is most famous for winning the talent contest Popstars and so subsequently being a member of the band Hear'Say. She is now an established Musical Theatre performer and presents a live gameshow, Bingolotto, on Virgin 1 and Challenge every Friday night. She is also the winner of series 3 of the ITV1 program Dancing on Ice.

Biography

Shaw started ballet lessons at the age of two and by the age of three was attending the Lupino and Freelance Dance school, where she trained in all forms of dance. Shaw also studied acting, and performed in her first show Annie at five years of age. She joined an amateur dramatics society and did various productions, including The Sound of Music, and a West End production of Showboat at the age of nine. She was a member of an ABBA tribute band, The Right Stuff, and appeared in countless television roles including an Esso ad, Holby City, and a BBC production, Elidor. She also tried for the part of Maria Sutherland in Coronation Street, along with Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh, but lost out to Samia Smith.

Shaw also developed her musical abilities, learning the recorder and violin, at St. Mary's primary school and later the saxophone at St. Gabriel's R.C. High School. After leaving school, Suzanne attended Oldham College for a BTec National Diploma in Performing Arts with extra units in acting essentials and devising and developing performance.

Popstars / Hear'Say

Her break in 2001 when the ITV show Popstars launched a competition for contestants to become part of a newly formed pop band. Shaw had just turned 18, and attended the auditions and successfully made it through several elimination rounds. She was chosen as one of the ten finalists and became one of the members of Hear'Say, along with Kym Marsh, Myleene Klass, Noel Sullivan and Danny Foster, having beaten 4,000 other hopefuls. Their debut single was the fastest selling non-charitable record ever in the UK, selling 1.3 million copies.

Their album, Popstars, went on to sell 1.2 million copies in the UK, followed by their own television show entitled Hear'say It's Saturday, performing with established artists such as Lionel Richie, Joe Pasquale, Bradley Walsh, Blue and Atomic Kitten.

Subsequently, the band achieved a sell-out arena tour and performed numerous television guest appearances.

Shaw made many appearances with the band on TV and in live performance venues, including "Hear'Say: A New Chapter in Full", "The Hear'Say Story", "Hear'Say It's Saturday!" and the "Royal Variety Performance" for television.

Hear'say had two number one singles, a number three single and a number six single in the British charts, before splitting in 2002.

Post Hear'Say

Since the band broke up on 1 October 2002, just after her 21st birthday, she has appeared in musical theatre and landed a role in the remake of the Summer Holiday musical in London's West End, and later in a UK tour of the show.

In February 2005, Shaw took on the role of narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, also in the West End. The leading role in Snow White followed, which was hailed as the UK's best pantomime, and then as Janet in The Rocky Horror Show national tour. She has also appeared in the reality television programmes Have I Been Here Before? and Britain's Worst Celebrity Driver. Her TV appearances have also included The Court for Channel Four, and Loose Women on ITV1. In 2007 she competed in a filmed reality series titled The Baron, which was to have been broadcast on ITV1 in August 2007, but was postponed due to the death of fellow contestant Mike Reid between filming and broadcast. It eventually premièred on 24 April 2008 on ITV.

Shaw made a guest appearance on the British television police procedural The Bill, broadcast on ITV1 in June 2007, playing the character of Laura Matthews.

On 20 September 2008 she will appear on the second UK Kids Choice Awards 2008 on children's channel Nickelodeon as a guest.

Dancing on Ice

In 2008, Shaw won series 3 of the popular ITV show Dancing on Ice, performing technical footwork and solo skating skills as well as many lifts and tricks with her partner Matt Evers, the "Headbanger" being her most best-known of the series (recreated in her final performance).

On 1 March 2008, it was confirmed that she had chipped a bone in her ankle during training and there were doubts as to whether she would be able to continue in the competition. Having previously received a gash to head and a broken rib, this did not deter her, and she vowed to carry on for her dance partner and the people who had voted for her. On the 2 March, she skated with her ankle strapped and finished second from bottom on the leader board with a total of 24; however, the public saved her from the skate-off.

On 9 March, she skated in the semi-final of Dancing on Ice and achieved a score of 27.5 to the song "Eternal Flame". Christopher Dean stated that he was hugely impressed with her skating and performance, saying she could do both fast and slower numbers equally well, and was exceptionally versatile. He also revealed that Shaw was very good at improvising as she forgot some of the steps at the start of the routine.

On 16 March, Suzanne Shaw was named the Series 3 Dancing on Ice champion, after Phillip Schofield announced she had won the public vote. She skated three times during the series finale, scoring a flawless five sixes with the judges in two of her routines. No contestant on Dancing on Ice had ever received five sixes before. She then went on to win the show by getting the majority of the public votes.

The Baron

In 2007, Shaw filmed a reality TV show named The Baron. It was due to air in Autumn 2007, but following the death of her co-star Mike Reid in July of that year, it was postponed until April 2008. The series featured Shaw, Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and Mike Reid competing for a vacant Baronial title in a small Scottish town called Gardenstown, near Banff in Aberdeenshire.

During the filming, McLaren was thrown out of the village for unruly behaviour, leaving Reid and Shaw to contest the final election, which was won by Reid. Before his death, Reid had expressed a wish to have a new community centre built in the village; a number of donations have since been secured from his family and others, and this is likely to go ahead in the near future.

The show premièred on 24 April 2008 on ITV and attracted good viewing figures for the 3 episodes for its 10:35 pm timeslot.

Chicago

After her success on Dancing on Ice, Shaw joined the West End cast of Chicago. She is currently performing in the role of Roxie Hart.

Tabloid coverage

On the 20 March 2008, the BBC reported that Shaw was lambasted in The Sun newspaper for not knowing the identities of the US Democrat presidential hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Having been asked which candidate she preferred, she was quoted as saying, "I'm going to be honest. I've never heard either of these names before". Shaw later claimed that the incident was due to a misunderstanding caused by a bad phoneline.

Personal life

Shaw got engaged to record producer Terry Adams during her time in Hear'say. The relationship ended during her UK tour of Summer Holiday when she began a relationship with Darren Day, and their son, Corey Mackenzie Day, was born in December 2004. The couple split on Mother's Day of the following year, with Day announcing "I don't know how to do family." Ironically, Day has subsequently married and had another child.

After having relationships with Zac Lichman (before he entered Big Brother and became known as Ziggy) and with actor Andrew-Lee Potts, she now dates Virgin Radio DJ and Hider in the House presenter Jason King, of duo JK and Joel. The couple had been friends since Shaw's Hear'Say days, but began dating in December 2005 after appearing together on Britain's Worst Celebrity Driver. The pair now live together with Shaw's son in Buckinghamshire, and announced their engagement in August 2008.

In 2008, Shaw was voted celebrity mother of the year by the public.

References

External links

• Suzanne's official website
• THE UnOfficial website